Chapter 12
12
A ny thoughts of Aisha or what she’d said were burned away by the inferno of heat and need building between them.
Maax pulled away to look down at her, and they stared at each other in charged silence, the air crackling between them. His pupils were blown wide—darkness and desire in their depths—leaving only a thin ring of molten gold around endless black. A muscle pulsed in his jaw.
"The evening is young.” His rough growl sent liquid heat pooling between her thighs. "My quarters... if you want..."
The awkward invitation pulled a breathy laugh from her. "Are you inviting me in for coffee?"
He blinked, confusion briefly overtaking the hard need in his expression. "I can find coffee if you wish, but I meant—" He broke off. "I want to?—"
She couldn't help but smile at his sudden awkwardness, lifting on her tiptoes to brush her lips against his cheek.
“I’m teasing. I know what you meant. It's a human saying. Coffee is just an excuse. What happens after is... more interesting."
Understanding blazed in his eyes and he bent to claim her mouth again. This time the kiss was pure seduction, and a promise all rolled into one. His massive hand splayed across her lower back, pressing her firmly against his rigid length.
"Humans are strange creatures," he broke away to growl against her lips. "But I want to take you back to my quarters and claim every inch of you. Mark you. Draanth you until you never look at another male. Make you mine in ways that will leave you no doubt who you belong to."
The possession in his voice made her press her thighs together. She nodded, not trusting herself to speak. Not without begging anyway.
His hand engulfed hers as he drew her away from the wall, the contact sending sparks racing under her skin. Without another word, he led her through the station's corridors.
She shivered, butterflies rioting in her stomach with each step. He didn’t speak, his expression tight and a tiny muscle jumping in the corner of his jaw as they walked. But each time he looked down at her, his eyes were molten gold and dark with desire. For her. When he looked at her like that, she felt like the only woman in the world… in all the worlds. For a woman with kids, whom society had all but rendered invisible, to be seen that way was heady. Irresistible.
They reached an elevator she’d barely noticed on the way down, and only noticed now because as soon as the door opened, Maax snarled, “Out, now!” at the occupants.
Three leather-clad latharians scattered in that running but not running way men had when they were trying to save face. All of them had fewer braids and beads than Maax did.
“You didn’t need to scare them like that,” she giggled as he herded her into it, almost physically, but she didn’t mind the manhandling. Not when he was somehow both rough and gentle with her at the same time. “We could have shared the elevator.”
His eyes gleamed wickedly as he backed her up against the wall. “No. We couldn’t. Unless you wanted me to kill them for seeing this?”
She blinked up at him, her thought processes stuttering. “Seeing what?”
The corner of his lips quirked, and his voice was a deep rumble of pure temptation as he lowered his head.
“This,” he murmured against her lips, and the next moment, his lips crashed down over hers.
The kiss was hard and demanding, stealing her breath from the first moment. Pressing closer, he pinned her to the wall with his larger, harder body. Heat and chills flowed over every inch of her skin and she lifted her chin, eager for more. This wasn’t how he’d kissed her before. It wasn’t soft and gentle, delicately feeling out her boundaries like last night. It wasn’t even the seductive kiss from the corridor outside the restaurant.
No, this was heat and need and dominance. It was the kiss of a man who knew what he wanted and was going to get it. The rumbled moan from the center of his chest and the way he somehow managed to cradle her protectively against him even while he pinned her to the wall made her melt against him.
She gasped, and he took advantage, parting her lips with a hard sweep of his tongue. Driving inside, he slid his tongue against hers in devastating, open-mouthed kissed that drove the arousal surging through her veins higher and higher. No, this wasn’t just the kiss of a man who knew what he wanted, it was the kiss of a man who knew what a woman wanted, what his woman wanted, and by the stars he was going to give it to her.
Reaching for her hands, he pulled them up over her head and held them captive as he used the other to sweep down her curves. Breaking the kiss, he looked down at her.
“You’re mine, kelarris,” he told her, the words a sinful rumble of whiskey and smoke. “And I’m going to spend all night proving that to you.”
The elevator jolted to a halt, the doors sweeping open behind them. But he didn’t move, his gaze locked with hers.
“Gods, you’re so beautiful,” he rasped, and for a moment it felt like she could see right down to his soul. “I can’t believe you’re mine.”
She didn’t get chance to reply because he stole another kiss, one that stole her breath in return, and the next moment she was airborne.
“Maax! You don’t need to carry me!” She couldn’t help the soft laugh as he strode along the corridor with her cradled against his chest, like a groom carrying his bride over the threshold on their wedding night. “Really! I’m too heavy!”
He snorted, amusement replacing the desire in his eyes for a moment. “You are not. You barely weigh anything, and this is quicker.” His voice dropped as he caught her gaze in a hard look. “And it’s imperative I get you out of the corridors as quickly as possible.”
Her heart lurched at that look and she curled her fingers around the edge of his leather uniform jacket, brushing the satin over steel skin there. “Oh? Why? Is there a problem?”
He smiled, just the softest, smallest quirk of his lips but it was so wicked that heat arrowed through her, right down to her clit. It pulsed, aching as he held her gaze.
“There will be,” he promised. “Because if I don’t get you inside somewhere, I’ll take you right up against the draanthing corridor wall, and then I’ll get arrested.”
“Is that right?” She snorted, torn between amusement and heat so intense that she thought she might come on the spot. “I’d have to visit you in prison then. Demand conjugal visits. It could be kinky with you in handcuffs.”
The darkness in his eyes blazed so intensely she thought she was going to burn up on the spot.
“Not. Helping,” he ground out and then, somehow, they were there. At least, she assumed they were when he swept through a quarters door with her still in his arms.
She got the barest glimpse of quarters that were utterly different to hers. The ceilings were much higher, the layout and furnishings different. Where her quarters had human furniture, his didn’t. It was larger, and with different lines. Wood and what looked like leather.
He marched right through into a bedroom. At least, she thought it was a bedroom. There was no bed like she was used to, with a mattress and a headboard. Instead, he stopped in front of a large platform piled with blankets and what looked like furs. Her eyes widened slightly. Had he hunted for those furs himself? She knew so little about him.
Instead of putting her down like she expected, he held rigid, his unusual eyes locked onto hers. She saw the conflict there, loud and clear.
“I’m supposed to ask if you want this,” he finally bit out, searching her eyes.
“But you don’t want to?” she guessed, biting her lip.
“No.” He groaned, watching her mouth. “I want to lock you up until you agree to my claim. Slake my lust on your gorgeous body, feel you come on my cock over and over.”
He let go of her legs, letting her slide partway down his hard, warrior’s body, but not all the way. She was caught, pressed against him, with her feet off the ground as he held her easily. Using a big hand, he pressed her hips against his, letting her feel the hardness of his cock, trapped between them.
“I want to know what you look like when I take you,” he growled. “I want to see what you look like when you shatter in pleasure, and know that I did that to you.”
“Oh god,” she whimpered, less than a heartbeat from begging.
“So no,” he lifted his head, watching her. She felt the iron control in the tension of his body. “I don’t want to ask you. I want to take. Everything you have. Everything you are. You are mine, kelarris. Always mine.”
“Yours,” she nodded in agreement, answering the question he hadn’t asked. She didn’t need that from him. “Please…”
Her soft plea broke the dam of his control. With a growl, he dropped her to her feet and pushed her back onto the bed in one quick moment. She barely felt the coolness of the sheets before he was braced over her. His hair brushed her shoulders and neck as he took her lips again.
Her moan broke free as she clung to him. There were no preambles. He didn’t bother with niceties. His kiss was hard and ruthless, and so damned hot she almost caught fire there and then. Wrapping herself around him, she drove her hand up into his hair like she’d wanted to from the moment she’d met him.
She met him kiss for kiss, their tongues tangling in a torrid dance of heat and need. Braced on one elbow, he cupped the back of her neck in one large hand, tilting her mouth to where he wanted even as his other hand swept down her body. She whimpered, the sound lost in his mouth as he cupped her breast, the knowing sweep of his thumb making her nipple pebble immediately. But he didn’t stop there, sliding his hand down the curve of her waist and over the swell of her hip. Before she could register his movements, he cupped her, right through her dress, long, strong fingers pressing right where she needed him.
“Oh god,” she broke away from his kiss to gasp. For saying the Lathar had no women, he knew his way around a woman’s body really well.
“Is that right?” he murmured, nudging her chin up so he could kiss along the line of her jaw. He rocked his hand against her, altering the pressure of his fingers over her cloth-covered lower lips. “Do you like that?”
“Uh-huh,” she managed from somewhere, nodding. “Just… better with…”
“With what kelarris?” He nipped softly at the soft lobe of her ear, sending chills through her body. Stars, she didn’t know it could be this way. That a man could turn her on this much. “Tell me what you like…”
“Without clothes,” she gasped. “It would feel better with no clothes.”
She felt his smile against the skin of her throat as he kissed her. Even though she couldn’t see it, she just knew it was wicked.
“That’s not a problem,” he pulled away from her, leaving her dazed and blinking on the bed as he stood up. Her eyes widened as he began to strip, right there in front of her. Lifting on her elbows, she watched as he shrugged out of his jacket. None of the Lathar wore shirts, so she’d known that he was packed with heavy, hard-carved muscle, but there was seeing it through the open jacket and there was seeing it as he took his clothes off for her.
A small smile quirked the corners of his lips and he tensed his shoulders as he dropped his jacket on the floor. “Do you like what you see, little mate?”
She couldn’t do anything but nod as he reached for his belt buckle, chest and abs tensed as he toed his boots off at the same time. But she really couldn’t spare any brain cells for his footwear, not when the belt was loose and his strong fingers unsnapped each button, revealing more and more of his flat, hard lower abdomen. The leather parted and she bit her lip. He had those hard ridges either side that made every feminine instinct she had sit up and take notice.
He pushed the leather down over his hips and his cock popped free. Long and thick, it curved upward proudly to his cobblestone abs, the wide head flushed and already weeping with pre-cum.
“Oh shit…”
It was… No, there was no way that was fitting inside her. A deep chuckle filled the air, and she dragged her attention back up to his face. A smug, amused grin filled with masculine pride and ego creased his lips.
“If there is any look a male wants to see on his mate’s face when she sees him for the first time,” he rumbled. “It has to be that.”
He got rid of his pants by the simple act of shoving them down his legs, and then he was advancing on her again, a dark look in his eyes.
“Dress,” he growled. “Off, or I’m going to tear it off.”
“No!” she squeaked, already sitting up to twist so she could get to the zip down the side.
“Let me,” he murmured, hooking a strong arm around her waist to pull her to her feet. Her back against his broad chest, he pulled the zipper down slowly, taking the opportunity to leave a line of kisses down the side of her throat, then her shoulder when the dress gaped, sliding down her body to catch on her hips.
Heat flushed her cheeks. She wasn’t as slender as some women in the program, and she’d had three kids. Childbearing was an understatement when it came to describing her hips. What would he think of her body? Would he be disappointed when he saw her naked?
“Gods, you are so so soft,” he groaned, his hand sliding over the skin he exposed. Down her side and around. She gasped, biting her lip again as he pushed under the dress bunched at her waist and further down under the fabric.
Her panties stopped his advance, and he growled. “ Draanth it. Why do human women wear so many clothes?”
She couldn’t help the chuckle, one that ended in a strangled sound as he managed to navigate her underwear and slid his hand beneath them. The first brush as his strong fingers parted her pussy lips had her clutching at his wrist for support, but the second, when he found her clit, made her knees buckle.
He caught her easily, holding her upright against him, his lips whispering over the side of her throat as he stroked. Teased. Learned her body and responses at the same time. Liquid heat escaped her, coating his fingers and he used that to tease her some more.
“So hot and wet,” he groaned, testing the entrance to her body with a blunt-tipped finger. “And so tiny. I’ll have to be careful with you. Slow and gentle, I promise.”
She didn’t want slow and gentle, but he was so big, she knew they didn’t have a choice. Her nails dug into his arm, and she turned her head, seeking his kiss. He didn’t make her beg, his kiss scorching as he pushed a long, thick finger inside her. She moaned into his kiss as he shoved his tongue into her mouth, the dual penetration scrambling her brain. Another finger was added to the first as he lazily pumped… fucking her with his fingers… parting her, stretching her even as he used the heel of his hand to rub against her clit.
“Maax,” she gasped, breaking from the kiss as her body tightened, almost to the point of pain. “I can’t… Oh god, I’m…”
“Let go,” he whispered. “I’ve got you.”
He shoved deep again, somehow curling and pressing his fingers back. Ecstasy exploded through her, her hands clenched around his strong wrists as she came, and came some more. Pleasure rolled through her as liquid heat bathed his fingers and palm. Even her toes curled up. Finally, she hung limp in his arms, her face pressed against the side of his strong throat.
“Oh my god,” she croaked, belatedly aware that she’d screamed his name. “That was… I’ve never…”
He rumbled in the center of his chest as he slipped his fingers from the embrace of her body.
“You’re perfect,” he told her, still holding her as he lifted his hand. Heat washed over her cheeks as she saw the slick wetness that coated his skin. Then he lifted his hand to his lips, licking them clean, a rumble of pleasure in his throat.
“Oh god,” she managed, burying her face against his throat again.
He chuckled. “You keep saying that, but my name is Maax.”
Turning her in his arms, he divested her of the dress, leaving her just in her underwear. His gaze heated as he looked at her.
“Pretty. But take them off,” he ordered, a hardness washing over his face, and she realised he was nearing the edge of his control. His next words proved that. “Or I’ll fucking rip them off.”
She blinked, taking a step back as she reached around to unhook her bra. “That’s the first time I’ve heard you swear like a human.”
His smile was dark and hard. If she didn’t know he wouldn’t ever hurt her, she might have been scared of his focus. “I’m learning.”
The bra strap gave but she held the fabric against her with one hand. His gaze flicked down and he frowned, reaching out to tug on the strap, pulling her closer to him.
“Stop hedging.” He slid a hand into her hair again. “My threat to tear them off wasn’t an idle one. I want to see you.”
Her smile was crooked. “No one really tears a woman’s underwear off. It’s just a fantasy… it only happens in films. You’re not really going to do it.”
“Oh?” His raised eyebrow should have warned her. The fact that he wasn’t human should have warned her. “Sure about that?”
The next heartbeat, she was flat on her back on the bed, her bra gone, lost when she’d squeaked and clutched at his broad shoulders.
He looked down at her, a big hand tangled in the fabric of her panties at the side. Holding her gaze, he snapped one side, then the other, with a negligent strength that stole her breath.
“I’m going to claim you now,” he told her, sliding the ruined fabric from under her ass. A hard knee pressed between hers, and she let her thighs fall apart. “Are there any other things you plan on telling me I’m not going to do?”
She shook her head, watching his expression as he settled between her thighs. He was so much larger than her that she caught her breath, but he kept most of his weight off her, bracing himself on his arms. Her hands found his shoulders, his chest, smoothing over his skin. His eyes flickered closed for a moment.
“I love it when you touch me,” he admitted, pinning her with his gaze again. “Your hands are so small and delicate. Like a nexrian’s wing.”
“Oh really? How about now?” she murmured, sliding her hand down between their bodies to wrap around his thick cock.
“God’s teeth, female!” He growled, his hips bucking and sliding the hard length of his cock through her hold. Reaching down, he grabbed her hand, covering it with his own on his cock. “What are you trying to do, kill me?”
“Turnabouts fair play, isn’t it?” She bit her lip, smiling up at him as she tried to move her hand to stroke him again, but he wouldn’t let her, squeezing slightly.
“Not when I’m about to explode before I even get inside you.”
Pulling her hand free, he pulled it up over her head, moving so he had both of them pinned there with one of his. “Behave yourself,” he told her, his expression dark as he reached down between them again.
Her breathing hitched as he adjusted himself, fitting the thick, broad head of his cock against her entrance. Her eyes widened. She was wet and slick, but he was still larger than any man she’d ever been with before.
But he didn’t just slam into her. His expression was tight and fierce as he pushed forward, breaching her body slowly. She went still, watching him as the tender flesh of her pussy parted around him.
“Oh… that… you’re big,” she managed, but he didn’t stop. Instead, he pulled back a little, then rocked forward again. And again. And again. Each rock gained him a little more ground until, finally, she parted enough to accept him.
Her softer moan mingled with his deep groan as the next rock gained him another inch and then another. Before long he’d buried himself balls deep inside her, and pressed his forehead to hers as they both fought for breath.
“You’re so tight,” he admitted in a raw voice, his big body tight with tension and iron control. “I can’t hol?—”
“It’s fine,” she whispered, tilting her head up to kiss him. “I’m fine. This is fine. I’m not that delicate. Now, are you going to fuck me or what?”
He laughed, the sound soft against her lips. “As my lady commands.”
Pulling back, his next thrust was harder. She whimpered, feeling every inch as he pulled out and slid back in. He was so big he hit all her nerve endings down there, including some she hadn’t realised she even had.
“Is that all you got?” she whispered, earning an answering growl. The next thrust was harder still, and she moaned. Oh god, she’d never felt anything like it. Lifting her legs, she wrapped them around his lean hips. “Better. More.”
That was it. He let loose, grabbing her hip in a bruising grip as he drove into her time after time. Each thrust was heaven. The feel of his large, hard body moving over hers, it’s sole function to bring them both pleasure, made heat sweep through her entire body.
Tugging on her wrists, she managed to get them free, sliding her hands over his torso and chest as he leaned down to kiss her again. Their tongues mated as he took her over and over, each slide of his thick, hard cock in her over-stuffed pussy a claim. Telling her she was his, his mate, his…
“ Kelarris,” he groaned, wrapping her up in his arms, his hand driving into her hair again. “I’m not… it’s… I’m goi?—”
She nipped at his jaw with small kisses. “Do it. Claim me. Mark me with your…”
“Not yet,” he growled, jaw tight as he slowed himself down. Reaching between them, he found her clit again, stroking in hard, fast movements until she was on the edge as well.
“Oh god, Maax!” she cried out as he shoved her ruthlessly over the edge, her body clenching down around his as she shattered apart with pleasure.
He threw back his head as he buried himself inside her and came, hard and fast. She cried out as she felt his cock jerk and pulse, and the heat as he bathed her inner walls with his thick, hot seed. Each pulse drew out her pleasure more and it was long moments before either of them came to, breathing heavily.
She blinked. “That was…”
He claimed her lips softly. “Amazing. You are amazing. And you’re all mine.”